Another lie by PF Post Newspaper on RB- Thandiwe is out of the country

We consider today’s story in The Post newspaper entitled “Rupiah, Thandiwe differ over dollars” not worth responding except to put the record straight and expose to the Zambian people the desperately appalling levels of journalism being practised by some media houses.

It is public knowledge that former First Lady Thandiwe Banda has not returned from the United States of America since she left with former President Rupiah Banda. President Banda returned to Zambia alone.

Shockingly, The Post has alleged in its story that the former first lady is in Zambia and allegedly stopped police officers from conducting an interview at the former first family’s New Kasama residence yesterday over a fictitious $36,000 that allegedly went missing in the bedroom.

We hope the Zambian people can see the desperation with which the newspaper is trying to divert our attention from pertinent issues currently affecting our nation.

President Banda wishes to appeal to all Zambians to do the best they can to protect their country and treat each other with love and respect. He feels lies can plunge the country into irreversible problems.

Yesterday the Post newspapers also published a story alleging that $36000 was stolen from the former President Rupiah Banda’s bedroom.

The following statement was released by office of the Fourth Republican president yesterday.

We wish to refer to the lead story in today’s edition of The Post newspaper under the headline “$36,000 goes missing in Rupiah’s bedroom” in which it is alleged that His Excellency Mr Rupiah Banda, the Fourth Republican President, had such an amount allegedly stolen from him.

We wish to categorically state that no such kind of money has ever gone missing from the President’s New Kasama house in recent times. The story in The Post newspaper is a total fabrication by the authors. President Banda has also never reported or sent any agent to any police station to report any such kind of missing money. In any case, President Banda’s house is guarded by State security who should have been the first ones to be informed if any money had missing at the residence. How ironic it is to have the case reported at Woodlands police station without the knowledge of the President’s bodyguards and indeed the VIP protection unit stationed at his house!

We demand that, in the spirit of responsible journalism The Post retract the story and apologise to the President and the nation for misleading them with such blatant lies. Journalists can verify with Woodlands police station or indeed any police station to ascertain the truth whether about whether such a report was ever reported by President Banda or indeed any of his agents.

Finally, we also wish to clarify the erroneous caption on the front page picture of today’s edition of The Post stating that President Banda lives in his personal house in New Kasama.

The said house is a private property rented by the Zambian Government on behalf of the former President as per his retirement benefits. President Banda does not own that house as portrayed by The Post newspaper. The Zambian government is yet to build a house for President Banda.